Hello everybody.
I was wondering if anyone out there had an old Mac Portable (the Mac
laptop) that they'd want to sell. I really don't want to pay all that much
for it, and I don't need anything all that fast (I don't know all that much
about Macs), but it needs to run at least System 6.0.5. The main reason
that I'm looking for one, is that my school uses mainly Macs (the only PC's
that they have are a few XT's that you need to turn off the lights to read
the monitors), and I don't have a Mac. Whenever I'm working on a project,
I'm confined to the 40 minutes of classtime to get it done. I'm not
looking for a full-sized Mac, because (1) I don't have the room, and (2), I
sort of need the portability, because It's not very often that I'm at home
before 8:30 or 9:00 PM, and at that time I don't really feel like working
on stuff for school.
All I'm really asking is that it works, and can run System 6.0.5 (that's
what my school uses).
As always,
ThAnX in advance,
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
At 12:37 AM 6/17/97 +0000, you wrote:
>On Mon, 16 Jun 1997, Andy Brobston wrote:
>
>> Was the Aquarius II compatible with the old Aquarius programs?
>>
>> Can anyone give me a lead on an Aquarius II?
>
>Never heard of such a beast, and it would have been futile to attempt to
>market an Aquarius II when the first one didn't do so hot. Perhaps you
>are referring to the Radofin Aquarius? If not, I want to know what you
>do, and I want to know it NOW! ;)
>
>Sam
Go to:
http://www.webcom.com/~makingit/bluesky/aquarius.html#aquarius2http://www.webcom.com/~makingit/bluesky/tech/aquarius_tech.html
"Confident in their system, Radofin's president, Lawrence M. Scott, Jr.,
announced that they would continue to sell Aquarius through a new
distributor, and would release Aquarius II in March of 1984 and Aquarius
III in July. None of this happened. "
James
jscarter(a)worldnet.att.net
> DOes anyone have a computer which uses the EBCDIC character set, rather than
> ASCII (did I get the acronym right? what does it stand for anyway)?
I've never heard of a microcomputer that used EBCDIC, but there are a lot of
things of which I've never heard. It is used in IBM mainframes and minis.
Here at HUD we have a Hitachi mainframe that emulates an IBM, and it uses
EBCDIC internally. We have file transfer utilities that take care of
translating into ASCII as necessary.
What does it stand for? Gee, it's been a long time. Let's see.
According to the "SAS Compantion for the MVS Environment," it stands
for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. That sounds redundant,
but that's IBM for you.
--Dav
david_a._vandenbroucke(a)hud.gov
>From: "e.tedeschi" <e.tedeschi(a)ndirect.co.uk>
>Subject: Re: Why?
>Well, to get more specific, I have the (perhaps wrong) feeling that:
> a) You are against collectors who collect for the historical importance
> onyl and are not really worried if the item works or not (as long as all
> the parts are in there and the thing can be made to work if and when
> required). I have been ridiculized when I suggested this one way to go
> about collecting.
I have never felt that here, and I have several items in my collection
in non-working order. Would I give up my P-500, MTU VMM board, or
SuperPET if I never got them fixed? NO! I would hope to get them fixed
but the important thing now is to get them, mainly because it is part of
the 'collection' if they work, wonderful, if they don't they still has
meaning.
> b) You are against collectors who want ot take out bits and pieces from
> the systems in order to show them separately (but retaining and perhaps
> even ehibiting the "crippled" item). I have been refused help in thsi
> respect when it became apparent I was going to do this.
I think that may be personal views by individual collectors and not by
the group in whole. Some feel that not having 'original parts' or
add-ons is blasphmey. I can understand and appreciate where you come
from, there are compnents of computers that are shear art as the disk
controller in the apple II (from what I read the board was drawn 'not
designed by computer' by Steve Wozniac.) I would be interested to learn
more about it. There have been chips that have amazed me too. Everyone
has their own intrest. The only reason you are perceiving otherwise is
that those people are the ones that are posting more, from years of
running an BBS as well as participating on the group, the more you post
messages the more attention and notoriety you will receive. If you want
to see something written about an interest of yours, sometimes you just
have to sit down and write it yourself.
> c) You are against helping "foreigners" (and therefore "different")
> collectors to export "your" stuff perhaps in the wrong perception that
> it will diminish the heritage of the country (yours). I have striken a
> deal with one of the subscriber here and he disappeared in the distance
> after a while (he did not answer anymore...) By the way does anybody
> need British stuff? I would be glad to help you with it.
I reply to what I know (some times I also replay to what I don't know
and put my foot in the mouth in the process). If you see anyone post
about Commodores or PETs more specifically, you can be sure within a day
or so a response from me will follow (unless it is something I am
totally in the dark about). Case in point, Exidy Sorceror, I purchased
one and sent it to Sam Ismael, he is now looking for information, not
very many people ever seen one, much less an ad for one, sometimes the
best we can do is quiote from old magazine ads. :/ Also some of the
sytems are regional and there may not be many people from that area who
have seen that particular machine on this list...
> Of course I have no proof of the above but from the short experience I
> had here, I think that the problem exhists as opposed to the "openess"
> of other American collecting groups like, for example, the radio
> collecting community which has been VERY helpful with me and other
> "foreigners" to buy and export stuff from the USA and CANADA (what about
> the stuff you ARE importing from overseas then?).
I have sent fellow users disks and cartridges through the mail to
Europe, anything larger I could not afford the shipping. This depends
on the individual. Sam was lucky to get me to shop the Sorcer as quick
as I did, I myself lothe shipping things, especially heavy/bulky
things. I think that again depends on the individual.
> I think that if you think I am wrong the best way to demonstrate it, if
> you care, is not with words but with facts.
> Thank you for your interest
> enrico
You are very welcome and hope you keep with the list and help us all to
work out this misunderstanding.
Larry Anderson
--
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Yes, I finally got the fever for the flavor of a Pringles -- Dooh! I mean,
the fever to spark up my CP/M machine... despite everyone & their brother
telling me to check the PSU first.
Yea, Tar & feather me, and ride me out on a rail... but I saved the thing
>from Mr. Junkman, and it cost me $1.00 at an auction... Figured there
wasn't much to lose.
Here's what I have:
It is *not* a Heath/Zenith machine.... It states simply on the front:
Heathkit Computer. No nuthin' else. On the back, I found the Serial# and
the number:
H-120-1.
I'm assuming this is the model number. It has two floppy drives (one of
which the garage door is broken on) a full keyboard (which works fine, but
is slightly sticky...) and an internal green 11" diag. mono monitor.
Something tickled in my brain about those floppies, so as I lumbered around
in the dark in my newly-begun clean-ish basement (Eeeeek!) I found my old
non-working Atari 810 disk drive... and the mechs looked almost exact!
Would these happen to be the same mechanically, would anyone know?
Also, as there was no paperwork for this, so even the most basic,
rudimentary info on this unit would be helpful... such as: which drive is
the boot drive? Top or bottom?
When I sparked it up, everything seemed to work, the tube came to life, and
greeted me with a finger pointing to the right in the upper-left corner...
and stayed there. Every key sequence I tried resulted in a "Beep" except
<CTRL><RESET> which, of course, reset the machine and re-greeted me with
the finger.
Does anyone out there know what I have, and could you tell me? ;^>
BTW, I (of course) would be in the market for a set of boot disks for this
beastie...
Thanks one and all,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.
Got a simple question. God I hope it's simple and does not turn out to be
an advocacy question. Im planning my "museum" setup. I have alot of
machines that were simply designed only to work on Color TV's. Is it
possible to just tap the input's before they get to the RF modulator {built
in} and use a composite monitor, of which I have dozens? Otherwise I've
got to buy, scrounge, find, about 9 color tv's.
Whilst in a self-induced trance, Ward Griffiths and/or Lisa Rogers happened
to blather:
>On Sun, 29 Jun 1997, Brett wrote:
>That was me. Yes, it might have been _possible_ to build a machine in
>1930, but at that time nobody had made the connection between Babbage's
>ideas and electronics. IIRC, it was John von Neuman who took that fatal
>step, then published it. And then all Hell broke loose, and there is no
>sign of the rift closing within our lifetimes. I _love_ it. With
>respect to the old Chinese curse, we live in interesting times. And we
>have done so since the Harvard Mark I. (Well, there _is_ that rumoured
>German predecessor, but it was never advertised.)
Uh, actually, try October 1939... with the ABC. That's the Atanasoff -
Berry Computer, which is now recognized as the first functional electronic
computer. I posted 2 or 3 URL's for more info on the web, if there's a
searchable archive of this list, check there for my post. If not, I'll look
it up in mine if I still have it.
BTW, you're timeline is still a bit off... IIRC John von Neumann invented
the stored-program concept, didn't he? It was Markus & someone who designed
the first UNIVAC mostly with concepts hijacked from the ABC... methinks it
was in 1972 or so when the U.S. Patent office yanked the patent away from
them and gave it back to Atanasoff & Berry.
Anywho, have fun, y'all!
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.
I've just arranged for a Tandy 1000HX and it appears to be kind of odd. It
was bought at one of Tandy's infamous 'tent sales' where they dispose of stuff
they've had sitting around the local 'Shack, and the guy who bought it
originally said that it didn't come with any 3-1/2" floppy installed and that
both covers are still over the bays. It boots off of an external 5-1/4"
drive, which if I remember correctly, is selectable easily enough by way of
the SETUPHX program included with it's DOS diskettes. Do any of you
TRS-80/Tandy knowledgable people remember ever seeing a HX set up like this?
Every one of them I've ever seen new has come with a 3-1/2" floppy in the
left-most bay, right next to the expansion connectors. I bought one of these
nifty machines when they first appeared as well, and had an external 5-1/4"
floppy and CM-11 monitor with it, as well as the PLUS memory, RS232 and 1200
bps modem cards.
Jeff jeffh(a)unix.aardvarkol.com
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga enthusiast and collector of early, classic microcomputers
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
In message <33B75A67.2AE4(a)ndirect.co.uk> classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu writes:
> Brett wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, 29 Jun 1997, e.tedeschi wrote:
> > > There are computers that you could not possibly USE but they are
> > > important for what they meant (and mean today) in short for their
> > > "heritage". Without them you could not have used (and use) the ones you
> > > are using today.
>
I assume the following is one of the computers you claim can't possibly be
used today...
> How about the Science of Cambridge (Sinclair) MK XIV ? It had 256 bytes
You mean an MK-14. I've never seen it printed in roman numerals (I have the
machine, user manual, a couple of 3rd party books, the adverts, etc, etc,etc
It was my first computer).
> (NOT Kb, BYTES) of RAM memory, LED display, not modulator and no way of
> storing programs (you could add these at a later stage as accessories).
Perhaps you could explain _why_ I can't use one today. I've written many,
many embedded control programs (monitor some inputs, update state variables,
toggle outputs, etc) that would _trivially_ fit into 256 bytes of SC/MP code.
If I add the optional INS8154 RAM/IO chip I have another 128 bytes of RAM and
16 bidirectional I/O lines. I can also add another 256 bytes by raiding my
junk box for some 2111's.
I can think of a few dozen applications that I could use that for. A trivial
one is an I2C chip tester - replace the monitor ROMs with ones burnt to contain
the correct code (avoids using the cassette interface option...), and have
said code read I2C addresses/data from the hex keypad and bit-bang the I2C
protocol on a couple of the 8154 lines. Or, how about a Centronics printer
tester (emulate the centronics port on the 8154, make it print the classic
scrolling ASCII text). Or a programmable pulse generator for digital IC
testing. Or a hundred-and-one other applications.
Yes, I can do any of those with a PC or many, many other machines. But the MK14
is small and portable. It doesn't need a monitor. It will start the program
instantly at switch-on. It is still useful today.
>
> enrico
>
>
-tony
>
>From: Ward Griffiths and/or Lisa Rogers <gram(a)cnct.com>
>Subject: Re: 'Home' computer: Definition
>On Sun, 29 Jun 1997, Brett wrote:
>> Which reminds me, my oldest handheld is from Korea. It feels great on my
>> feet! My uncle picked it up for me in the mid-60's tho the design has been
>> around in Asia for centuries.
>Yeah, got three assorted items of that nature myself (abacuses?
>abaci? Never met anybody with more than one to tell me the proper
>plural!)
>--
>Ward Griffiths
Consulting "The Japanese Abacus; Its Use and Theory" by Takashi Kojima
(12th printing, 1960) He uses "abacuses" as the plural form. (very
interesting history that dates way back to Roman days and farther).
Unfortunately I have a somewhat incompatible model from my book, on my
wall is a chinese abacus with 5 and 2 beads per digit, where the
japanese models use 4 and 1 (which sounds more logical to me, easier to
execute a carry to the next digit.)
An interesting chapter in the book covers a contest hosted by Stars &
Stripes between a U.S. Pvt. in Macarthur's Finance Disbursing Section,
(an awarded expert operator of calculators of the tim)e and a Japanese
champion abacus operator from the Postal Ministry. As of 1946 the
Japanese Abacuses were still able to beat the latest in American
calculators.
Larry Anderson
--
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